Zak Malang
JF-Expert Member
- Dec 30, 2008
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- 233
Katika makala hii iliyotoka leo katika The East African, naona Jenerali asubiri makombora makali kutoka kwa wanajinsia wa upande wea pili.
Evidence reveals its corrupt women who corrupt their men
By JENERALI ULIMWENGU
The woman who said something to the effect that behind every successful man there is a woman of substance got it right.
But she of course could have added a rider, to the effect that beneath every male shipwreck sits a huge iceberg.
One can hardly argue against the first statement, which forms part of our conventional wisdom, seeing as we all have been raised on a diet of narratives of greatness that was achieved by male actors only because they benefited from the silent, unobtrusive and unsung inspiration given to them by their female companions.
In Mideastern lore, Grandpa Abraham begat humanity, albeit fractious and antagonistic, because his two companions, a sometime barren wife and a dutiful slave girl showed him how to do it.
In more recent times, and close to our comprehension, Napoleon had his Josephine, Lenin his Krupskaya, Peron his Evita, Charles de Gaulle his beloved Yvonne, JFK his Jackie, Bob Marley his Rita, Lennon his Yoko, and so on. Today we may even add Obama and his Michelle.
But, at the same time, it is hard not to recognise the female icebergs that have brought doom on male vessels that had seemed to be sailing steady.
An uppity young Trojan, Paris, might have gone on to claim greater military victories if he had not fallen for the charm of Hellen of Sparta, that citys kings wife.
In the Judeo-Christian tradition, Samson, the Schwarzenegger of the era, could have built a brilliant career in the Olympics of the time if he had not told his lover, Delilah, that all his strength lay in his dreadlocks.
From that moment all his enemies needed was a pair of scissors and a few sleeping pills, and the giant was done for.
Clyde was excited about crime, alright, but the encouragement he got from his lover Bonnie gave him an extra boost and may have pushed him to greater bravado and violence, which in the end brought early death to the romantic outlaws.
It has never been suggested by historians that it was Eva Braun who sent Hitler on Operation Barbarossa to attack the Soviet Union, but who knows, maybe the Fuhrers fraulein wanted a little liebensraum of her own in Siberia.
But we know for sure that Harold Macmillans government in the UK was brought down in the 1960s because a curvaceous hooker, Christine Keeler, found a way of sleeping with John Profumo, minister of defence, and a Soviet spy, plus a few others.
What of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos?
Was the Filipino war hero turned dictator bewitched by the luxury loving Imelda into raiding his countrys treasury, oppressing his people and killing his opponents? Or was he bound to do it anyway, sweet temptress or not?
It would be too much to speculate on what would have happened if Charles Prince of Wales had not had his way over Camilla, had the British institutions nixed the controversial marriage.
If he had, he would have had no right to claim originality in that area, since his great uncle, Edward VIII, abdicated the throne in the 1930s so he could marry his belle, Mrs Simpson, an American divorcee.
Now, in the wake of the Tunisian events that ousted strongman Ben Ali, we learn, via Wikileaks, that his wife, Leila Trabelsi, was engaged in financial chicanery involving Yasser Arafats widow, Suha, and that the first lady defrauded her partner and used her husbands power to cancel Suhas Tunisian visa.
Wikileaks fed the Gulf media outlets, which were in turn monitored in Tunis, where the first familys greed and Ben Alis oppressive regime were already too much, and the pent-up anger simply boiled over.
Worse, its now emerging, before the Ben Alis flight from Tunis, Leila literally held up the countrys bullion reserve, taking with her an incredible 1.5 tonnes of gold, worth over $55 million.
Maybe there is something we can learn from all these examples, even if we do not have to credit the thesis that its corrupt women who corrupt their men.
Jenerali Ulimwengu, chairman of the board of Raia Mwema newspaper, is a political commentator and civil society activist based in Dar es Salaam. E-mail: jenerali@gmail.co
Evidence reveals its corrupt women who corrupt their men
By JENERALI ULIMWENGU
The woman who said something to the effect that behind every successful man there is a woman of substance got it right.
But she of course could have added a rider, to the effect that beneath every male shipwreck sits a huge iceberg.
One can hardly argue against the first statement, which forms part of our conventional wisdom, seeing as we all have been raised on a diet of narratives of greatness that was achieved by male actors only because they benefited from the silent, unobtrusive and unsung inspiration given to them by their female companions.
In Mideastern lore, Grandpa Abraham begat humanity, albeit fractious and antagonistic, because his two companions, a sometime barren wife and a dutiful slave girl showed him how to do it.
In more recent times, and close to our comprehension, Napoleon had his Josephine, Lenin his Krupskaya, Peron his Evita, Charles de Gaulle his beloved Yvonne, JFK his Jackie, Bob Marley his Rita, Lennon his Yoko, and so on. Today we may even add Obama and his Michelle.
But, at the same time, it is hard not to recognise the female icebergs that have brought doom on male vessels that had seemed to be sailing steady.
An uppity young Trojan, Paris, might have gone on to claim greater military victories if he had not fallen for the charm of Hellen of Sparta, that citys kings wife.
In the Judeo-Christian tradition, Samson, the Schwarzenegger of the era, could have built a brilliant career in the Olympics of the time if he had not told his lover, Delilah, that all his strength lay in his dreadlocks.
From that moment all his enemies needed was a pair of scissors and a few sleeping pills, and the giant was done for.
Clyde was excited about crime, alright, but the encouragement he got from his lover Bonnie gave him an extra boost and may have pushed him to greater bravado and violence, which in the end brought early death to the romantic outlaws.
It has never been suggested by historians that it was Eva Braun who sent Hitler on Operation Barbarossa to attack the Soviet Union, but who knows, maybe the Fuhrers fraulein wanted a little liebensraum of her own in Siberia.
But we know for sure that Harold Macmillans government in the UK was brought down in the 1960s because a curvaceous hooker, Christine Keeler, found a way of sleeping with John Profumo, minister of defence, and a Soviet spy, plus a few others.
What of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos?
Was the Filipino war hero turned dictator bewitched by the luxury loving Imelda into raiding his countrys treasury, oppressing his people and killing his opponents? Or was he bound to do it anyway, sweet temptress or not?
It would be too much to speculate on what would have happened if Charles Prince of Wales had not had his way over Camilla, had the British institutions nixed the controversial marriage.
If he had, he would have had no right to claim originality in that area, since his great uncle, Edward VIII, abdicated the throne in the 1930s so he could marry his belle, Mrs Simpson, an American divorcee.
Now, in the wake of the Tunisian events that ousted strongman Ben Ali, we learn, via Wikileaks, that his wife, Leila Trabelsi, was engaged in financial chicanery involving Yasser Arafats widow, Suha, and that the first lady defrauded her partner and used her husbands power to cancel Suhas Tunisian visa.
Wikileaks fed the Gulf media outlets, which were in turn monitored in Tunis, where the first familys greed and Ben Alis oppressive regime were already too much, and the pent-up anger simply boiled over.
Worse, its now emerging, before the Ben Alis flight from Tunis, Leila literally held up the countrys bullion reserve, taking with her an incredible 1.5 tonnes of gold, worth over $55 million.
Maybe there is something we can learn from all these examples, even if we do not have to credit the thesis that its corrupt women who corrupt their men.
Jenerali Ulimwengu, chairman of the board of Raia Mwema newspaper, is a political commentator and civil society activist based in Dar es Salaam. E-mail: jenerali@gmail.co
